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July 25, 2011

They're wrong of course. I've lost count of how many times this thing has been declared dead but yet rose from the grave to haunt the region.

You see the left never gives up. At some point in the future they'll gain power again and then KRM will be risen from the dead once again.

Here are a couple of reminders about KRM. It was projected to run at an 87% loss with ridership of about 1.7 million per year.

Based on those projections and the planned daily trips this line would have had to maintain an average ridership of 321 people per train to meet those projections. Assuming the ridership projection was a bit optimistic then revenue figures (projected losses) would have also been too low.

Can you imagine? Something projected to run at an 87% loss doomed to lose even more money than that?

That is of course the point with these things. Once they get started they can never be stopped.

And to those who point to mass transit needs in the region, there is an existing Coach line that runs this route. In short, you aren't trying to provide any new service, just a different and more expensive way to do it.

I remember once being in a debate with local green party guy Pete Karas. The question about KRM came up and Pete stated he was absolutely in favor of it. He provided the following as his rationale, mass transit is good for the environment so I am in favor of it.

I don't write that to trash Pete, I like Pete. But this is about as far as the usual leftie gets on these huge money projects. They talk about the environment and economic development but there is just example after example out there that they are just wrong. These projects always cost more than they say and we see less development than is promised.